Above: Old and new visual identities for Oshawa Public LibrariesBelow: Design for library cards

Oshawa PL gets a bright new visual identity, featuring bold and spring-like purple, pink and green tones. The logo itself looks like it is turning a corner leaving some speed lines in its wake. This is paired with the tagline “Find Yourself Here”, which has a clever double meaning. So clever, in fact, that it’s also been used by folks like the Missouri Historical Society and Worthington Libraries (who seem to have moved on from that line since winning the John Cotton Dana Award in 2011). Well, I guess you can’t keep a good tagline down.

Unless my eyes deceive me, there seems to be something interesting going on with the logo colours. In some iterations of the logo (like at the top or immediately below), the colours are bright, almost fluorescent. But on the Events newsletter (below) or library card design, the colours appear muted. Intentional?

Above: New logo with taglineBelow: A snapshot of the library’s webpage with new visual identity

A new visual identity for Rochester Public Library (that of MN, not NY) features what looks like four books squared up spine-to-spine in an appealing library blue (certainly among the top colours for library identities). This was obviously a much-needed update.

When I asked (on Twitter) who worked on the rebranding, I was told that it was a combination of an (unnamed) local design firm and additional work by the Library’s graphic designer.

“Lemke said the new logo, along with new library cards and marketing materials, will help spread the library’s message of vitality, in the building and in the community.

The library’s rebrand comes after years of using the same logo and visual identity, which has its roots in a 1995 design contest, even though the library has experienced a major shift in programs and services in recent years.

“The library’s (most recent) logo has been around since 2006, but a lot has changed since then,” Lemke said.

Small aside: there’s a surprising (and coincidental, no doubt) similarity between this Rochester Public Library’s new logo and their sister Rochester Public Library in New York (show below). Books intersecting with an open centre – I’m onto something, right?

"...UBC Library launched a four-week campaign to promote our BC Historical Newspaper digital archive to raise the profile of the collection and to encourage researchers, historians and communities beyond the bounds of the UBC campus to utilize the resource in their work."

“In September 2017, UBC Library launched a four-week (September 4th-30th) campaign to promote our BC Historical Newspaper digital archive to raise the profile of the collection and to encourage researchers, historians and communities beyond the bounds of the UBC campus to utilize the resource in their work.

The BC Newspapers digitization project was launched in 2011 to bring the vast inventory of community newspapers around BC to British Columbians and to develop an online, open access historical resource for research, teaching and learning. The project was completed in August 2017, making 47,249 issues of 163 newspapers published across the province between 1859 and 1995 available through UBC Library’s Open Collections portal.

The four-week campaign was timed to coincide with the completion of the six-year project and aimed to establish UBC Library and the BC Historical Newspapers collection as an essential, authoritative online destination for anyone conducting research into the province of BC, establish the BC Historical Newspapers digital archive as a UBC Library success story and to increase online usage of the BC Newspapers collection.

The campaign resulted in significant year-over-year increases in online traffic to the BC Newspapers digital archive, increases in usage of the BC Historical Newspapers collection online and increased engagement with promotional and instructive content for the digital archive.”

"In January and February of 2018, UBC Library launched a four-week campaign called Go Somewhere Unexpected to increase in-person visits to Rare Books & Special Collections and to drive online visits to content."

Go Somewhere Unexpected Campaign

“In January and February of 2018, UBC Library launched a four-week campaign (January 8 to February 16) to increase in-person visits to Rare Books & Special Collections and to drive online visits to content. Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) is a unique branch/unit of the UBC Library, facilitating primary research for faculty, researchers and students. Its collections are also accessible to the general public and materials can be viewed on an individual basis through the reading room or through weekly tours, led by RBSC librarians.”

“Research revealed that while more than half of UBC students were aware of Rare Books and Special Collections, a significantly lower percentage had actually visited the branch, suggesting a gap in awareness of the tours available as well as an opportunity to increase student engagement.”

“The [Go Somewhere Unexpected] campaign aimed to increase in-person visits to RBSC, increase engagement with RBSC online content and to establish RBSC as an accessible, welcoming and friendly resource for UBC students. It resulted in a significant increase in engagement with RBSC’s online content, an increase in in-person traffic and strong attendance at a VIP tour.”

Marketing Strategies

“To provide low-barrier, accessible and engaging content to drive interest and awareness around RBSC, we created a blog post entitled “Five amazing items at UBC Library’s Rare Books & Special Collections that every UBC student should see before graduating” which profiled the highlights of the collection.”

“We created a Twitter poll to accompany our “Five amazing items at UBC Library’s Rare Books & Special Collections that every UBC student should see before graduating” story. The poll prompted users to identify which of the items most interested them. Results from this twitter poll informed the items included in the VIP tour – the Darwin letter was added to the tour after being identified as most intriguing to our audience.”

Which item at Rare Books and Special Collections would you most like to see at our VIP tour on Feb 14? #Gosomewhereunexpected

“The campaign was led by a major acquisition story – RBSC’s acquisition of the first edition of the Vancouver Weekly Herald, the first item ever printed in Vancouver. This acquisition served to highlight RBSC’s core mandate to collect and preserve materials that directly relate to the history of British Columbia, while also encouraging visits to see this specific item. We leveraged the coverage of this major acquisition to launch the campaign.”

Outcomes

“As a result of this campaign, tour attendance increased by 120%. While most weekly tours averaged between 2-5 attendees, our VIP tour attracted 11 attendees. 64% of attendees were visiting RBSC for the first time [and] 91% of attendees said they were very likely to recommend visiting RBSC. Campaign landing page and social media engagement surpassed project objectives [and] Tweets published for this campaign boosted engagement by 40% compared to this time period last year.”

Photo by UBC Library Communications on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons License.

"We drafted and tested many, many versions of these before finalizing the door and the wolf in sheep's clothing. We used the opening and closing of the elevator door as a kind of "reveal" element - the images were not totally self-explanatory, but definitely attention-grabbing..."

Appearances Can be Deceiving

“We had the idea for this elevator display last year, after the election, when the words “fake news” started dominating the conversation. It seemed like an opportunity to remind people that librarians are experts in evaluating information and of the importance of using critical thinking whether you’re choosing sources for a research paper or deciding whether to share a certain post on social media.

We drafted and tested many, many versions of these before finalizing the door and the wolf in sheep’s clothing. We used the opening and closing of the elevator door as a kind of “reveal” element – the images were not totally self-explanatory, but definitely attention-grabbing, and when the doors opened the sign read, “Appearances can be deceiving” and promoted Ask a Librarian services.”

Below: video shows the opening for two elevator doors, the “wolf in sheep’s clothing” door pictured above, and a second door which reads “don’t fall for fake” upon opening.

Below: the image in the elevator decal used for social media marketing for a library workshop

“We’ve been decorating the first-floor elevator doors in Olin Library with decals for about a year, and our new university librarian, Gerald Beasley, suggested we open it up as a student art contest to encourage students to become more engaged with the library, and to make sure we’re displaying images that resonate with them. We asked students to submit artwork or images originating from their research around the theme of “The World at Cornell.” We received a wide range of submissions, from photographs taken during a climate-research trip to Patagonia to our first-place winner, a Madhubani-style painting of a Cornell scene (shown below). In judging entries, we looked for images that were visually striking, thought-provoking, and relevant to our theme. Winners received a $100 gift card to the Cornell Store.”

Featuring: Regina Public Library, Vancouver Public Library, Victoria State Library, Invercargill Public Library, and more.

This year, at the Ontario Libary Association Super Conference, I presented Ad/Lib’s Library Marketing Year in Review for 2017. It featured library marketing that caught my eye or was recommended to me, while other content was solicited directly from a variety of libraries across Canada. The goal of the presentation was the same as the website: show off great ideas and provide inspiration. I’ll be sharing the content of that presentation over a series of posts.

This year, at the Ontario Libary Association Super Conference, I presented Ad/Lib’s Library Marketing Year in Review for 2017. It featured library marketing that caught my eye or was recommended to me, while other content was solicited directly from a variety of libraries across Canada. The goal of the presentation was the same as the website: show off great ideas and provide inspiration. I’ll be sharing the content of that presentation over a series of posts. Content presented in no particular order. This third and final part is continued from Part I and Part II.

Regina Public Library

In 2017, RPL rethought their social media strategy to focus more on customer stories, and to talk about library services and initiatives in a way that the customer can relate to.

Colleen Hawkesford, Manager, Marketing and Communications at RPL describes one recent promotion: “…we developed videos to promote Family Literacy Day that showcased real young customers sharing their favourite stories, as a way to promote participation in this initiative and encourage families to read together.”

“…we started regular photoshoots of customers having fun at the library, using our resources and enjoying our programs and we plan on exclusively using these “real” shots in our marketing, as opposed to stock photos (in a way, we are moving from fake to real).”

“…we are moving away from talking about the specific content of individual programs and services, toward emphasizing the experience customers will have. For example, Foodie Film Night (local restaurants and food places offer samples and [appetizers] before and after a food-related film screening) focused not just on the film title being shown (as in previous campaigns) but emphasized it as a unique, affordable approach to dinner and a movie/date night.”

Vancouver Public Library

The Reading Tree

The Reading Tree is a children’s book with a goal of promoting literacy among Vancouver families. The book includes tips and information for parents on how to start enriching their babies’ and kids’ development through literacy The idea took inspiration from Toronto Public Library’s “Let’s Get Ready for Reading Guide”

“The project received a City of Vancouver award during its city-wide, staff recognition awards. It was written by one of our Children’s Librarian, Els Kushner, and illustrated by a local illustrator and artist, Dianna Bonder. Books were placed at doctor’s offices and given away for free at VPL library branches.”

Instrument Lending Library

“The Instrument Lending Library launch was a campaign promoting the addition of more instruments to the collection. The visual material was striking and helped bring people in, excited about the new collection. Both the initial opening and the subsequent launch of the addition of instruments included addresses by local celebrity musicians (Sarah McLachlan, Hedley, Mother Mother) and performances from students at the Sarah McLachlan School of Music.”

#GetBooked

“#GetBooked is a campaign VPL has been running on and off since 2014 to promote our ebook collection. It included transit system advertisements and postcards that were handed out at SkyTrain stations.”

Victoria State Library

I had the pleasure of seeing Victoria State Library CEO Kate Torney speak at a library conference in 2017. She spoke about the incredible re-envisioning happening as part of the appropriately named Vision 20/20 campaign. This campaign involves a massive fundraising effort and a significant re-imagining of the existing space:

Create 40% additional public space to accommodate our ever-growing number of visitors, researchers and students

Redevelop existing public spaces, making them more accessible, adaptable, modern and innovative

Introduce fresh services and experiences to breathe new life into our heritage assets and extraordinary collections

Invercargill City Libraries

2017 saw the social media team from New Zealand’s Invercargill City Library nail the viral post better than just about anyone. They did it with a mix of creativity and humour. Two standouts include this IFLA International Marketing Award Winning entry, a Keeping up with the Kardashians homage:

…and the idea that I wish I had thought of, Librarians Read Mean Tweets:

Featuring: Kitchener Public Library, Hamilton Public Library, University of Toronto Libraries, Toronto Public Library, and Brampton Public Library.

This year, at the Ontario Libary Association Super Conference, I presented Ad/Lib’s Library Marketing Year in Review for 2017. It featured library marketing that caught my eye or was recommended to me, while other content was solicited directly from a variety of libraries across Canada. The goal of the presentation was the same as the website: show off great ideas and provide inspiration. I’ll be sharing the content of that presentation over a series of posts.

This year, at the Ontario Libary Association Super Conference, I presented Ad/Lib’s Library Marketing Year in Review for 2017. It featured library marketing that caught my eye or was recommended to me, while other content was solicited directly from a variety of libraries across Canada. The goal of the presentation was the same as the website: show off great ideas and provide inspiration. I’ll be sharing the content of that presentation over a series of posts. Content presented in no particular order. This is continued from Part I.

Kitchener Public Library

“Chapter One is really a promotional or a marketing strategy to engage particularly [with] the millennial customer base in a different way than maybe our traditional marketing has done in the past”1

Mary Chevreau, CEO of Kitchener Public Library

Kitchener Public Library identified a challenge, as described in Urban Library Council, “As we looked around our library and event attendance, we knew we were missing a vital voice; the young artists, designers and entrepreneurs in our community. With “Chapter One,” we want to start a conversation that allows millennial customers to tell their own stories via blogs, social media and e-newsletters.” KPL worked with the local agency HIM and HER to prepare initial design work (including the logo, above) and set-up some of the key components of the campaign.

An initial launch event for Chapter One was an invite-only affair, as a way for KPL to better understand what its target demographic wants. As Charlotte Prong, Social Media Editor at KPL describes in The Community Edition, “A lot of those people [who were invited] were already using the space, but we wanted to hear from them [about] what they wanted more from us, what kinds of events they’d like to see us have and also to showcase some of the things they might not know about. Even millennials that use the library might just come in and use it as a quiet space but not really know all of the resources it may have, so we gave tours and we announced some of those big events coming up,”

Other elements include a newsletter featuring library and local events, powered by MailChimp…

…and an Instagram with content aiming to appeal to a younger age demographic.

With regard to impact (again in Urban Library Council), “We are seeing increased use of library spaces, including study/office space, the digital studio and meetups. Through this initiative, we’ve already experienced an increase in social media engagement with more than 40,000 impressions and more than 3,000 engagements.”

KPL’s Top Tweet

I had to include Kitchener Public’s top tweet, a great take-down of the ignorance of UK politics writer Andre Walker. This one tweet had >210,000 impressions and >12,000 engagements.

We have about a million in-person visits every year + 2 million uses of digital services. RT if you use your library. pic.twitter.com/X234RJidTo

Hamilton Public Library

Each year, Hamilton Public Library runs a contest for local children, ages 3-13, to create an illustration that represents what the library means to them or promotes reading and literacy. The winner has their image blown up to billboard size and put up on a main thoroughfare for two weeks. I have a soft spot in my heart for this campaign because I drove past it every evening while it was up in 2017. HPL partners with a sign company and the billboard owners to make this happen. Full contest details on the website.

University of Toronto

I ran into colleagues from UofT, Jesse Carliner and Heather Buchansky, at a couple of conferences this year, where they were sharing an easy social media approach that had high engagement and is easily replicable by other libraries: “the journey of the book”.

Library AMA

One of the things that TPL did his year that generated a lot of buzz in my online community was an AMA (Ask me Anything) on Reddit – after a successful test run on local subreddit r/Toronto, TPL scaled up and ran a second AMA on r/Books, a much bigger subreddit (14.2 Million subscribers!).

I haven’t seen a lot of libraries engage much with Reddit, which has a passionate and engaged user-base, largely untapped by libraries. I reached out via Reddit to the TPL account and connected with Bill Vrantsidis. Here’s what he had to say: “Generally Reddit drives much more traffic to our blogs – and we use it a lot for visual material – but limited to Toronto focus. We’ve also posted onto r/vinyl and r/leafs. We did have a 2nd AMA on r/books for Freedom to Read week in Feb 2017 – it was one of their top AMAs that year. Reddit reaches folks who aren’t as familiar with our services – it’s been very successful for us.” Finally, Bill notes that there are a lot of university subreddits that are potential outreach opportunities for academic libraries.

Brampton Library

“…we focused a lot on big messages for a mass audience – promoting the library as a whole to city residents. The City shared their space allocation on bus backs, interiors and shelters. The creative we were able to prepare with our new branding and pure imagination caught [the city’s] interest and the partnership went ahead. We saw positive outcomes from this campaign with increased engagement on social media, at our programs and events and in the positive anecdotal reaction. This transit campaign helped build awareness of the Library – we would definitely like to do another in 2018.”

Featuring: Saskatoon Public Library, St. Thomas Public Library, Ottawa Public Library, and Calgary Public Library.

This year, at the Ontario Libary Association Super Conference, I presented Ad/Lib’s Library Marketing Year in Review for 2017. It featured library marketing that caught my eye or was recommended to me, while other content was solicited directly from a variety of libraries across Canada. The goal of the presentation was the same as the website: show off great ideas and provide inspiration. I’ll be sharing the content of that presentation over a series of posts.

This year, at the Ontario Libary Association Super Conference, I presented Ad/Lib’s Library Marketing Year in Review for 2017. It featured library marketing that caught my eye or was recommended to me, while other content was solicited directly from a variety of libraries across Canada. The goal of the presentation was the same as the website: show off great ideas and provide inspiration. I’ll be sharing the content of that presentation over a series of posts.

Saskatoon Public Library

“We actually did a lot of really fun and engaging stuff on our Facebook page this year which resulted in us more than doubling the likes on our page (from about 4,000 to 9,200+ and counting in the past 12 months).”

“In September, we asked people to Ruin a Book With One Letter. So the idea is to remove or add one letter to a book title in such a way that it alters the original meaning. For example: Here’s Waldo instead of Where’s Waldo. Or: Gone With the Wine instead of Gone With the Wind.”

“This post went incredibly viral. It reached nearly 2.7 million people, was commented on 9,200+ times and shared 6,900+ times.

We found that people really liked how we were responding to their “ruined” titles with funny GIFs or comments. So we have continued doing a lot of this. Basically, it’s just a quick and fun way to engage followers and let them know we’re reading (and appreciating) what they post.

We followed up on the success of this post by asking followers to choose their favourite “ruined” title using a poll.”

“Here’s Waldo was the winner, so our library’s Writer-in-Residence wrote a prose poem based on this title and read/unveiled it during our annual Stories in the Bar program.” What I appreciate about the “Ruin a Book” idea is that SPL didn’t just leave it at a fun, high-engagement post on social media. They found a way to convert that energy into a new idea, by working with their Writer-in-Residence.

Another post that has gotten high engagement is Word Nerd Wednesday. “Every Wednesday we post an obscure word that is somehow related to the literary world, explain its meaning and create a custom graphic for each one.”

Finally, Kirk notes that a thoughtful post with a compelling story can generate a lot of engagement and reach (>34,000), as with this post about Orange Shirt Day.

Ottawa Public Library

Ottawa Public Library worked with local charity EcoEquitable to create “This bag has a story” totes, which were distributed all across the city. From the OPL post about this campaign, EcoEquitable is described as a “…bilingual, registered Canadian charity in Ottawa that empowers and inspires newcomers and immigrants who arrive in Canada to acquire skills and enter the workforce with dignity and confidence. Women workers at EcoEquitable’s Vanier atelier used newfound skills and upcycled denim fabric to create these bags.”

“The Book Bag Blitz took place Wednesday, October 25 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at all 33 Ottawa Public Library branches and seven OC Transpo transit stations. OPL representatives engaged members of the public about the Library and its many programs and services, and offered fabulous new book bags to customers and potential new customers alike.”

Calgary Public Library

Calgary Public Library was one of many libraries across Canada to use the #LibraryMoments hashtag developed for October’s Library Month (spearheaded by Ottawa Public Library). What was unique about Calgary PL’s approach, though, was the scope of the campaign. It included a variety of social media graphics, both stills and motion gifs, with an eye-catching design. The content was largely driven by user stories and feedback, with some interviews with local personalities (I thought the video with local morning tv host Leah Sarich was particularly well done). It immediately jumped out of my twitter feed as something with a strong, yet consistent design, with well-thought-out content.

"We had to find a way to make a lasting impression with our new students and keep the UTSA Libraries top of mind long after orientation was over. The piece needed to be highly readable and appealing to students, while familiarizing them with the many essential services and resources the library has to offer..."

Making a lasting impression on incoming students

“Every summer we’re challenged to find the best way to engage incoming UTSA students during New Student Orientation. Because the orientation schedule is so dense, our face time with students is extremely limited – consisting of a 5-minute library stop on their campus tour and a table presence at a campus information fair. We had to find a way to make a lasting impression with our new students and keep the UTSA Libraries top of mind long after orientation was over. The piece needed to be highly readable and appealing to students, while familiarizing them with the many essential services and resources the library has to offer. The result was THE UTSA LIBRARIES OFFICIAL ROADRUNNER SURVIVAL GUIDE TO GETTING GOOD GRADES AND ROCKING YOUR FIRST YEAR AT UTSA, which debuted in the summer of 2016.

To engage our incoming undergraduates, we designed an interactive experience around the guide and offered an opportunity to create a personalized souvenir. Given our “selfie generation” audience, we decided to include a frame outline in the inside front cover spread for an instant photo. When students visited the library’s table at the information fair, we offered to take a Polaroid photo of them with a cardboard stand-up of our mascot Rowdy (dressed in a Blue Crew shirt – the same shirts worn by library staff). The photo was taped onto the designated spot to create a keepsake and a memorable #UTSAmoment.

How to “college”

To develop the guide’s content, we spoke with current UTSA students to find out what they wish they’d known in their first semester. As a result, the guide goes far beyond library essentials to include a wide range of tips and insider information on “how to college.” We extended the Survival Guide theme further by creating a companion video (below) that was included in the online pre-orientation taken by all incoming students. During the first week of the semester, we offered an app-driven Survival Scavenger Hunt in our main library attended by over 150 students. By using the theme consistently, we emphasized that the UTSA Libraries are key to surviving the university experience.

Over the course of the summer, we had 1,100 students visit the UTSA Libraries information table, snap their photo and walk away with their keepsake Survival Guide. Though difficult to measure quantitatively, we did see students returning to use their self-guided tour maps in our libraries throughout the summer and early fall. Anecdotally, we heard positive feedback from students who appreciated the piece’s fun approach, but also truly valued the relevant content.”

The thesis of this opinion piece is that TPL needs to update their uninviting logo. But this is all really just an excuse to round-up and showcase all the interesting concept design work done by students and other design professionals to rebrand Toronto Public Library.

I was born in Toronto, Canada, and lived there for half of my life. The Toronto Public Library (TPL) is a behemoth of public libraries. With 100 branches and circulation of 32 million items per year, it is considered one of the world’s busiest urban library systems on a per capita basis1.

All of that preamble is to set up my thesis, which I state out of love: TPL is using an old, uninspiring logo, and if they aren’t considering replacing it, they should.

The logo, now two decades old, features the library name in blue, bold capitals with two arches stretching over the word “library”. The arches probably are drawing from visual elements present in downtown Toronto, like City Hall and the adjacent Nathan Phillips Square (or maybe even the iconic SkyDome, now (sigh) the Rogers Centre). Given that the logo came with the amalgamation of multiple boroughs into one mega-library system, those arches are also probably supposed to represent connections across the city. The overall effect, though, is uninviting and does not readily reflect what the library stands for or wants to achieve. In sum, the right justification of blocky text, the singular colour palette, and dated swooshes are due for an update.

Luckily for TPL, the last twenty years have provided time for lots of up-and-coming designers eager to test their skills on redesigning this visual identity. A few of these were produced for the York University / Sheridan College course, “Corporate Identity Design” YSDN 4007, and others are unidentified.

Design Concepts

Certainly the most iconic design here, the logo is a simple T in a blue a shade darker than the current logo. The type gets a nicer font treatment, but still in all-caps. A good choice for a library that doesn’t want to stray far from the path.

“The design objective was to construct a corporate identity that aligned with the organisation’s values and evolving role in the community. Additionally, the identity would appeal to the most frequent users of the library, which are youth ages 10-19 and adults 20-34 years of age.

This visually powerful and iconic corporate identity resonates with the Toronto Public Library’s vision to become the most recognized library in the world.”

A design much more in step with current library visual identity implementations. Colourful and extensible.

“The colourful experiences are shown through the gradient blocks, giving visitors a glimpse of what awaits them within the library. Clear and friendly typography allows easy readability and quick recognition for readers of all ages, while the bright colours create an attractive and energetic atmosphere.”

Iconic in a different way, this visual identity would not be out of place on an art gallery or museum. I like the use of “TO” in the logo – a common shorthand for Toronto.

“The TOPL monogram, which was given an O as tribute to Toronto’s acronym TO, is designed to appear around the city as an icon associated with the core values of the library — knowledge, literacy, history & heritage, and multiculturalism.”

“We used the original arches as a huge inspiration to our logo concept. The 4 rings or “waves” represent the 4 pillars in which The TPL strongly bases their brand behind. (Read, Learn, Create, Deliver)”

“The design objective is to present the organization as a network of places that fosters community, the exchange of knowledge which provides tools for innovation. The digitization of the library books is to show modernity and the library’s many technological facilities. The pixels also represent diverse pieces of a community coming together. Green is used to represent growth. Cyan is used to represent high energy or activity and indigo is used to represent intelligence or knowledge.”

If you are the original artist and would prefer not to see your design here, please contact the author.

The above designs should in no way be construed as having anything to do with Toronto Public Library.

“With 100 branches, Toronto Public Library is the largest public library system in Canada, and the world’s busiest urban library system. Every year more than 18.5 million people visit our 100 branches and borrow over 32 million items.” http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/about-the-library/↩

Annual Reports / Strategic Plans – Electronic

San Mateo County Libraries ($15M+)

This annual report features the brand’s blue as the anchor colour, with complementary alternate colours throughout. I suspect all of these colours come right from the brand manual, given how well they complement the primary blue. The report is incredibly tastefully done, with a single font used throughout (in its normal and heavy variants), and photos colourized to fit the section’s theme. A very elegant, well-designed report.

American University Library ($10-15M)

Created as a website (which you should go view), this annual report is polished and extremely well designed. Built around the theme of campaign buttons, the report features the usual event highlights and statistics, but also profiles a number of library staff and university instructors using brief interviews and video. The profile sections feature parallax scrolling, which isn’t overused here. Really impressive.

Clermont County Public Library ($5-10M)

CCPL’s report focuses on a photo-dense story of the events the libraries hosted over the year, and highlighting a few key statistics and updates on the branches. The report wisely uses the two primary brand colours, providing cohesion to the document. I think the design would have been stronger if they used the flat version of the colour boxes throughout instead of the gradient versions.

State Library of Iowa (<$5M)

A fairly simple design, this report is executed professionally. It uses a simple colour palette, based on the brand colours, and includes a pleasant infographic (though is that 1 presidential visits or 10?). I think the photos could have been enlarged, and in some cases, brightened up. A solid effort.

Annual Reports / Strategic Plans – Print

University of Oklahoma Libraries ($15M+)

A traditional university annual report executed competently. It’s not flashy, but remains colourful and has a good mix of text and images. One simple way this report could have been made more exciting is with different font selection – the two chosen are fairly plain. On the other hand, I also recognize that font choices in universities are often regulated by the brand manual. Another thing to watch out for during layout is whitespace – images and text need fairly uniform space around them to look polished. Unfortunately, the electronic version suffers from some blurry photos and images that don’t scale well as a PDF.

Kitsap Regional Library ($10-15M)

Kitsap Library presents something different here. Not an annual report, and not exactly a strategic plan either. Rather, it’s a report on a process the library undertook to understand the community it serves. The text describes demographic and economic details about the region the library serves, then goes on to describe key themes that conversations with various stakeholders produced: Connection, Engagement, and Sustainability. The library plans on using this to adjust its service models and align itself better with community needs. It’s all presented in an easy to read and visually appealing manner.

North Vancouver District Public Library ($5-10M)

Another really nicely designed document. One clever design touch is how the report uses a circle motif throughout for images and quote call-outs, and these echo the circular shape of the logo. Good use of colours: bright and engaging. One recommendation would be to not use a different font in the quote circles in the table of contents and at the end; the font chosen seems out of place with the rest of the document.

Southern Maryland Regional Library Association (tied) (<$5M)

SMRLA went with a clever and compact Annual Report. Eschewing the typical multi-page photos and stories approach, their FY16 report is a double-sided sheet, designed like the old due-date cards, amusingly tucked into a big pocket. The front side lists key events and highlights with a very brief description, and the back includes some revenue and expense data in pie chart form. A fun twist on the standard format.

Source: Not available online. Provided to Ad/Lib courtesy SMRLA.

Grand Forks Public Library (tied) (<$5M)

This is a bold, colourful report that really gives the impression of an engaged public library. Good mix of text and images, usually at least one photo per block of text.

Disclaimer: The author (Andrew Colgoni) was one of 15 virtual judges for the 2017 PR Xchange Awards. This post and the commentary in it in no way reflects the opinions of the organizers or judges of the PRXchange Awards, and should not be construed as anything other than the author’s opinions.

"With this successful logo mark and a strong local reputation, a complete rebrand wasn’t necessary nor cost efficient. However, in order to have a cohesive and effective visual identity a few key elements needed to change."

When I started working at the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library (CCJPL), there was a preexisting visual identity associated with the brand that had gradually formed by a variety of designers and interns over the years. It was a look that needed work but already had a lot going for it. The most prominent visual feature of the brand was the logomark; a two-toned abstraction of an opening book. These optimistic, upward curves were especially appropriate for the CCJPL, where even the arches of the building seem to mimic the shape.

Previous iteration of the logo features sweeping curves, echoing the exterior facade of the public library

​With this successful logo mark and a strong local reputation, a complete rebrand wasn’t necessary nor cost efficient. However, in order to have a cohesive and effective visual identity a few key elements needed to change.

Tweaking the Overarching Design

The combination mark, which is both text and the logo. Note the changes to font and color, both of which are explored in detail, below.

The brand’s color usage had the most potential for improvement. The two blues used in the old logo weren’t compatible. They were just different enough to clash, but similar enough to be unreadable when layered. The dark blue was a much more purple hue than the light blue. This caused major problems for the brand as the strongest, most noticeable colors were often confined to the logo. As a result, internal signage was often on plain white paper.

Detail of the logo colors in the old and new logos. Note the decidedly purple hue in the old implementation of the logo.

With a more harmonious palette, these colors were allowed to spill onto the rest of the space. Now there are strong, noticeable, consistent colors throughout the library’s marketing and signage that the public instinctively associates with their library.

Century Gothic, a geometric sans serif, was heavily used in the old brand; Helvetica Neue, a neo-grotesque sans serif, is used in the logo. Similar to the original colors, these fonts clashed; they were different enough to be distinguishable but similar enough to serve the same purpose. By consistently using Helvetica Neue throughout the library’s visual assets, I was able to push a more unified, recognizable look.

An overlay showing the visual differences between the fonts Century Gothic and Helvetica Neue. Use of both fonts in the overall brand identity led to font clashing.

With these fundamental details addressed, the brand still needed to convey the scope of modern materials and services provided by the library. During promotional outreach events, I would often hear residents that were astounded to learn their library offered so much more than books. To help resolve this, I created a series of icons that relate to different aspects of the library. This created a visual reference to the variety of services we provide. They’re also used as background elements on promotional collateral given to new patrons.

Above: A set of icons for use on the website and other material. Below: promotional collateral showing the logo and colors in use in print.

These revisions have given the library a cohesive, fun and efficient branding. The branding elements work beautifully together and are also strong enough to stand-alone. Now, even from a distance, all of our signage is unmistakably associated with the CCJPL.

Editor’s Bonus:

Check out this motion logo for CCJPL featuring the logo transitioning into some of the icons above.

"We've been working on more consistent branding (and a cleaner look to our branding) at our library for a while now. The process has been slow; we're trying to make incremental changes when we can. When we learned that we were running out of library cards, we decided to seize the opportunity to redesign our library cards."

We’ve been working on more consistent branding (and a cleaner look to our branding) at our library for a while now. The process has been slow; we’re trying to make incremental changes when we can. When we learned that we were running out of library cards, we decided to seize the opportunity to redesign our library cards.

Branding

We started talking about branding when we completed a website redesign in the spring of 2016. That project helped us settle on standard typefaces and colors. With those decisions made, we began rebranding our marketing collateral, starting with our print newsletter. We eliminated rogue typefaces, created a typographic hierarchy, and refined the color scheme to make our newsletters more modern and clean.

Sample pages from the redesigned newsletter demonstrates consistent use of fonts and colours, and a clean, bright design.

In addition to being more consistent with typefaces and colors, we also wanted to introduce other elements that would connect patrons with our brand. We started using an abstract architectural motif of the building on the newsletter’s cover. We also introduced the tagline, “Where Community Happens,” that reflects the social and communal experience we strive to provide our patrons.

Northbrook Public Library’s newsletter, “Latest Edition” – the issue on the right features the updated branding. Note the architectural element at the top.

Design

We kicked off our design process for the library card with a few distinct styles including a three-color illustration of the exterior of the library and a simpler version with our prominent brand color and white text. We tend to lean on images of the building in our marketing materials, so we didn’t go in that direction. The card with just color and white text might have been too minimal.

We looked at examples of credit cards and noticed how they fill the corners with design elements to make the card more identifiable in a wallet. We already had the tagline, website, and library logo in three corners. To tie these elements together, we decided to incorporate the building motif from our newsletter.

Two “test” library cards, the left featuring a slightly more minimal design and a different arrangement of text, when compared to the right.

User Experience

We felt that no matter how well the card reflected our brand and was aesthetically pleasing, it had to be functional too. We kept coming back to two questions:

Will people identify this as a Northbrook Public Library card?

Will they be able to find it in their wallet?

Our circulation manager pointed out that we have many versions of our library card in use now. What any given patron understands to be our library card would be hard to pin down. We also knew that people routinely handed over their insurance card instead of their library card at the circulation desk.

We mulled these questions over in the group, but it was clear this was something that needed to be tested with patrons. Questions about behavior like this simply can’t be solved in a meeting room. We had to get out in the library and interact with real people.

Testing

To run our test, we created a very short testing script with key issues we were addressing with the test and the tasks we would have the patrons perform. We tested two versions of the card: the card with the architectural detail (on the right in the image above) and a plain, more minimal version (on the left)

In this case, we designed the test to collect attitudinal and behavioral feedback. We presented two design options to the patrons and asked which one they preferred and why. Then we had wallets (a clutch style and a bi-fold style). We handed the wallet to the user and asked them which card was easier to find.

Test library cards placed in a wallet for testing.

After 30 minutes of testing, we spoke to 9 patrons. We learned the following:

Overwhelmingly, patrons preferred the architectural card design over the plain card design. Patrons thought the plain card was bland. One patron commented that the different shades of blue made the architectural card stand out more.

A few patrons made the connection that the two-toned design on the architectural card was, in fact, architectural. One said it was unclear. The rest did not specify their feelings but still preferred it to the plain card.

Patrons generally did not find either card design easier to find than the other; both options were acceptable.

Most patrons cited the blue hue as their main tool in finding the card among other cards in their wallet.

Some patrons cited a slight preference for the architectural card, since it had text in the upper left corner.

From our user testing, we felt more confident about the architectural card design and we’re ready to order new cards!

Submitted by: Madeline Donnelly Institution: McMaster University Library Finding a creative way to promote Freedom to Read Week Over the past few years, McMaster University Library has run some great Freedom to Read (F2R) Week campaigns that have focused on... Continue Reading →

Finding a creative way to promote Freedom to Read Week

Over the past few years, McMaster University Library has run some great Freedom to Read (F2R) Week campaigns that have focused on banned and challenged books. This year, I was tasked with creating a campaign that focused less on books and more on academia and intellectual freedom. Although these are exciting topics for me, I thought that students might find these topics a little boring. So, what to do? I knew from the beginning that I wanted the campaign to be run on social media, and to consist of a few short, attention-grabbing videos. I also wanted the videos to demonstrate that intellectual freedom protects our capacity to explore new ways of thinking and our ability to challenge one another. Then it dawned on me that perhaps the best way to illustrate the importance of intellectual freedom is to demonstrate what happened to scholars in the past when they were not protected by these principles. In order to bring this topic into a modern context, I used social media as a framing device: what might happen to these scholars if they were sharing their radical ideas on social media platforms.

I consulted with various people and departments within the University to ensure the successful creation and dissemination of the videos. I worked with McMaster Library’s Archives and Rare Books Librarian, Myron Groover, to brainstorm which scholars to feature and the Manager of Student Media & Computing, Chris McAllister, to help me work out “kinks” in the execution of the videos. I also had regular communication with both the library advancement committee and the University’s public relations department to ensure that the videos met the branding guidelines for dissemination using the University’s channels.

Re-making Social Media in Camtasia

Making the social media look “real” in Camtasia

I used TechSmith’s Camtasia to compile and edit the videos. My initial strategy was to create social media accounts for all of the people featured in the videos, and then to record their interactions using the screen cast function. Unfortunately Twitter was able to detect that I am not actually Galileo, The Roman Inquisition and the Pope… so I was blocked. As a result, I had to figure out how to use only one Twitter and Facebook account by re-creating the interface in each video frame. It took about four full workdays to create the set of three videos.

The videos were created with the intention of sharing them on social media. The first video was initially shared on a library Instagram account (191 views, 52 likes), but the ending of the video needed to be trimmed to fit within Instagram’s one-minute maximum time frame. The videos were also posted on the Library’s YouTube account and were followed up with promotion on the Library’s Twitter accounts. These resulted in a about a hundred views per video… but nothing in comparison to the 4800+ views in the first five days of the videos being posted on the University’s Facebook account! To conclude F2R Week, the videos were also shared in a Library News Story.

If there was a lesson that I learned from this project, it is to always remain flexible and adaptive. I usually begin a video project with a clear idea of what it will look like, and how I will go about doing it, but it rarely works out the way that I plan. Make a social media account with Galileo and his haters? Easy! That is, until I realized boiling down really complex historical events (that I didn’t know much about) into a few Tweets takes quite a lot of research and creativity. Also, I definitely did not plan to have to re-create the social media platforms in each frame of the video. But, when the day is done, the trick is to be resourceful and find a way around the roadblocks to get to the completely worth-while final result!